The Career Development and Outreach Branch (CDOB) organized and supported a cadre of research and career development activities this year including: NIAMS Fellows Program oversight, with CDOB staff advising all trainees (Postdoc/Postbac/Grad/Medical/Summer) through individual career development forums and seminars, group workshops, classroom instruction, CV/resume writing, career counseling, scientific writing courses, and grant writing instruction with the an overview of grant review. In an effort to emphasize grant writing and submission, CDOB sponsored a NIAMS Fellows Grant Writing Award Program for our intramural fellows. Other activities included establishing networking opportunities, instruction and curriculum development for a graduate university course at Catholic University that focused on skill development, classroom experience, course syllabus planning and design, lecture planning, logistics and coordination. CDOB has provided training programs for all fellows in NIAMS as described, and will continue to provide the research training and programing needed to support our fellows. CDOB participated in the Emergency Management /Continuity of Operations Planning (EM/COOP) group, which plans and coordinates emergency transitions on the NIH campus. Along with this responsibility, CDOB took the lead in administrating the NIH Loan Repayment Program for NIAMS fellows, organized and moderated the mandatory Annual Biomedical Research Ethics Training, served for NIAMS on the NIH committee to promote intramural research as well as on the NIH-wide Training Directors Committee. CDOB provided planning and organizational resources for the NIAMS Intramural Research Program Annual Retreat, managed the NIAMS IRP Research Assistants Travel Award program, led NIAMS outreach and recruitment comprised of development, planning and/or oversight of the following: NIH National Graduate Student Research Festival (planning); NIH Community College Day (creation and development); NIH Community College Summer Enrichment Program (creation and direction); Trans-NIH Scientific and Medical Recruitment Forum (oversight); the NIAMS Adopt-a-School Partnership Programs (organizer), with school partners including Woodrow Wilson Senior High School's SciMaTech Academy (Washington, DC), Wheaton High Schools Academy of Biosciences and Health Professions (Wheaton, MD), Bell Multicultural Senior High School (Washington, DC), and Schools for Educational Evolution and Development (SEED), in particular The SEED School of Washington, DC; Science Fairs in the community (workshop development and judging); NIH Hispanic Heritage Month Program (planning); and lastly, participation at national conferences to promote diversity in biomedical research careers, including Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). To continue our outreach and recruitment efforts, CDOB played a major role in campus events for a variety of organizations, including the National Youth Initiatives for Biomedical Research, the National Native American Youth Initiatives, the National Hispanic Youth Initiative, the National African American Youth Initiative, and other similar non-profit organizations. For these events, CDOB hosted visiting students, gave oral presentations, and coordinated access to NIH areas of interest including laboratory tours. Through these events, CDOB was able to raise nationwide awareness among students today of the exciting potential offered by a career in science, and all that CDOB and NIH can offer them along that career path.